June 29, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



1019 



Osann acknowledged the metal to whicli the 

 name ruthenium had been given to be a 

 mixture of the oxids of titanium, zirconium, 

 and silicon. 



Fifteen years pass and there appears at 

 the University of Kazan, almost on the far 

 eastern frontier of Russia, a chemist, Clans, 

 who is destined to make greater contribu- 

 tions to the chemistry of the platinum 

 metals, not only than those who had pre- 

 ceded him, but than any one of those who 

 have lived in the nearly forty years since 

 his death. Clans was fortunate in having 

 at his disposal an almost unlimited quantity 

 of platinum residues, from the stock which 

 had accumulated at St. Petersburg during 

 the period of the coinage of platinum. In 

 spite of no inconsiderable effort, I have 

 failed to verify the tradition that the great 

 mass of these residues was sunk in the 

 Neva, to prevent their use in debasing the 

 coinage, and I am inclined to think that 

 the greater portion was distributed to 

 chemists, of which Claus received by far 

 the largest share. In his first publication,* 

 Claus announces the discovery of a new 

 metal, which he calls ruthenium, for the 

 purpose of honoring Osann, whose ruthen- 

 ium had failed to prove itself an element. 

 It may be mentioned that Osann hardly ap- 

 preciated the compliment, for he attacked 

 Claus with considerable asperity, accusing 

 him of claiming to discover what Osann 

 himself had discovered. To an impartial 

 critic Osann wholly fails to make out his 

 case. For nearly twenty years Claus con- 

 tinued his work, and his greatest service 

 was in definitely settling the position of the 

 six platinum metals among the elements.! 

 He was the first who clearly showed that 

 these six metals belong in a group by 

 themselves. Up to this time many had 

 held that platinum belonged with gold, 

 palladium with silver, and ruthenium with 



*Sh??. Alcad. St. Petersb. 3 (1845), 38. 

 tiiW. [2] 2 (1860) 160. 



tin.* He then arranges the elements in 

 three pairs and in two series f as we find 

 them in every table to-day. He also speaks 

 of ruthenium and osmium being especially 

 close to iron, an analogy hardly acknowl- 

 edged even after the periodic tables of 

 different chemists had appeared. He adds 

 that while platinum is not in the group 

 with gold, it is closely related to it. 



Since the time of Claus no new metals 

 have been found in platinum ore or belong- 

 ing to the platinum group, which have been 

 generally acknowledged as elements. Sev- 

 eral chemists have, however, found what 

 they have believed to be new elements, but 

 the quantity has generally been so small 

 that its verification has been impossible. 

 In 1852 Genth % found two grains of a white 

 metal in platinum from California gold. 

 Its properties were unlike those of any 

 known element. 



In 1862 Dr. C. F. Chandler § described a 

 new metal in native platinum from Eogue 

 River, Oregon ; this possessed properties 

 very similar to those described by Genth, 

 and Chandler concludes that his metal 

 is probably identical with that found by 

 Genth. 



In 1869 Guyard discovered a metal in 

 Russian platinum which he described ten 

 years later, || and called ouralium. It re- 

 sembles platinum but is softer and has an 



* Loc. cit. " Ea is nicht zu leugnen, das in Bezie- 

 huug einiger -weniger Eigenschaften sich solohe An- 

 alogien aufstellen lassen, allein ioh habe Grand 

 diesen nur einen geringen "Wertli beizumessen, und 

 schliesse mich daher entschieden dem ersten Theile 

 der Ansohauungsweise der Verfasser an, indem ich, 

 wie ioh mioh anch bisher ausgesprocben habe, die 

 Platinmetalle alle fur Glieder einer untrennbaren, 

 ■wohlbegriindeten Metallgruppe halte." 



f ( Principal I I I 



+ 611(1 J Series Os Ir. Pt. 

 of tlie 11911- 1 Secondary jiuljiji I pa 



m-^-\ 



— end 

 ^^^ ^^^ ^^ „ ofthe hori- 

 zontal series. I Series. ' r""'!""'!"'"' ""-* zontal series 

 i Proc. Acad. Sci. PJiil. 6 (1852), 209; Amer. J. 

 Sci. [2], 15 (1853), 446. 



? Am. J. Sci. [2], 32 (1862), 351. 

 Il 31omi. Scient. [3], 9 (1879), 795. 



